Attorney General Conway and State Partners Team with U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to Launch New Child Product Recall Initiative

February 25, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — Attorney General Jack Conway, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) today announced the launch of KY Kids Alert, a new statewide initiative to educate Kentucky parents and child care providers about the importance of child product recall information and to ensure that child care facilities across the Commonwealth receive these potentially lifesaving notices. As part of the KY Kids Alert initiative, approximately 1,500 Kentucky child care centers and certified family child care homes that have email addresses on file with CHFS will automatically be signed up to receive free child product recall alerts electronically from CPSC. Recall notices will also be mailed quarterly to the more than 1,400 child care facilities without an email address on file.

“Recalls of children’s products can only be successful if the information reaches those who need it most,” said General Conway. “That’s why I have joined with CPSC and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to launch our KY Kids Alert initiative to ensure that Kentucky parents, day cares and caretakers are aware of the latest child product recall information.”

Additionally, the Office of Inspector General, an agency within CHFS, will distribute materials developed by the Attorney General’s Office about how to get information on child product recalls to Kentucky’s licensed child care centers and certified family child care homes. Another agency within CHFS, the Department for Community Based Services, will support the initiative by sharing CPSC information with child care providers, child care resource and referral agencies, and credentialed early care and education trainers.

The CHFS’ Department for Public Health will provide information about the KY Kids Alert initiative to local health departments to help further share news about recalls within communities. Even in a time of budget cuts, Public Health has maintained its commitment to consumer product safety services, including product safety training with an emphasis on nursery safety in child care facilities provided by the University of Kentucky’s Injury Prevention Research Center.

“Ensuring the health, safety and welfare of Kentucky’s children is our top priority,” said CHFS Inspector General Mary Begley. “Providing information and resources to parents and child care providers is one of the most important steps we can take in terms of preventing injury and creating safe, nurturing environments.”

According to the CPSC, nearly 64,000 nursery product-related injuries were reported in U.S. emergency rooms in 2008. And from 2004 to 2006, 247 deaths were associated with nursery products. In September 2009, a seven-month-old Princeton, KY boy died after becoming entrapped in a Simplicity crib that had been recalled. In January 2010, CPSC announced the recall of more than 630,000 Doral Asia cribs after the death of a six-month-old Iowa boy. That same month, consumers were alerted to the recall of Graco’s Passage, Alano and Spree strollers and travel systems due to fingertip amputation and laceration hazards.

“CPSC is working to bring down the number of recalls by increasing the safety of products, especially children’s products, in the marketplace,” said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. “What is critical to families across Kentucky is to know about and immediately react to recall announcements of products in the home. Sign up for our free recall alerts – it’s free, it’s fast and can save a life.”

In 2009, Kentucky lawmakers passed a law requiring Kentucky’s licensed child care and certified family child care home providers to post information about the CPSC recall program and its website. The KY Kids Alert initiative will ensure that all of these facilities receive notice of recalled products that may pose a threat to children.

The Office of the Attorney General has also devoted a special section on its website to child product recall information. Consumers can sign up to receive child product recall alerts through the Attorney General’s website at www.ag.ky.gov. To view all of the CPSC’s product recall information, visit www.cpsc.gov call the Recall Hotline at 1-800-638-2772.

General Conway and his Office of Consumer Protection have worked hard to address child safety issues; including participating in a multi-state investigation of and settlement with Mattel in December 2008 regarding lead in more than 1.9 million recalled toys. In 2009, CPSC announced 29 recalls of toys and children’s products for lead alone, recalling over 1.4 million articles

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